E-Paper
Opposition likely to field a non-political face
Opposition parties seek a non-political candidate for Vice President, emphasizing constitutional values, ahead of the September 9 elections.
Hours after the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) announced Maharashtra governor CP Radhakrishnan as the Vice President candidate, a number of INDIA group parties pitched for an eminent person, who adheres to Constitution and democratic values but does not belong to any major party, as the Opposition candidate.
The Opposition is expected to announce its candidate by Tuesday.
In the previous election, former Congress minister Margaret Alva was fielded against NDA’s Jagdeep Dhankhar. The move irked the Trinamool Congress (TMC) — then the second largest Opposition party, and it decided not to support Alva.
To avoid any such mistake, top Congress leaders have indicated that the pick for the upcoming election will be a “INDIA bloc” candidate and not a party’s candidate. A senior floor leader of a non-Congress Opposition party told HT, “We prefer an eminent person as the candidate and not a politician. But, that person would adhere to the values of the Constitution and democracy.”
A Congress leader also said that it is open to fielding a non-politician nominee. “We will have a detailed discussion with all the leaders of the INDIA bloc. It is not necessary that the candidate must be a politician,” he said
A non-Congress candidate who doesn’t belong to any political party also makes for a better strategy vis-à-vis parties such as Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) or TMC and fence sitters such as Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) or Biju Janata Dal (BJD). At least eleven AAP MPs (barring Swati Maliwal) might have reservation for politicians from other parties but might vote if some eminent personality is fielded. Even as AAP quit the INDIA group, it joined the Opposition’s march to the Election Commission last week.
On August 8, after the dinner hosted by Leader of the Opposition Rahul Gandhi at his residence, 14 senior Opposition leaders including former Congress president Sonia Gandhi, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, former CMs Akhilesh Yadav, Uddhav Thackeray and Farooq Abdullah, TMC’s Abhishek Banerjee and Derek O’Brien and CPI(M)’s MA Baby joined Rahul Gandhi for another round of meeting where the issue of Vice President election was briefly discussed. Many leaders supported the idea of fielding a non-politician for the September 9 polls.
In 2017, the Opposition had fielded Gopal Krishna Gandhi, ex-diplomat and former West Bengal governor, as its candidate against NDA’s Venkaiah Naidu.
According to functionaries, Kharge has already discussed the Vice Presidential polls with Sonia and Rahul Gandhi, and Congress general secretary KC Venugopal.
On Monday, Kharge has called a meeting of Opposition floor leaders. The VP poll issue might be discussed there, too.
